‘No answer’ yet on number of staff that could lose jobs as part of local government reshuffle in West Northamptonshire

Next April will see the district and borough councils in Northampton, Daventry and South Northamptonshire, as well as the county council, dissolved and replaced with a new West Northamptonshire unitary council.

But the possibility of duplicate positions across four different councils has led to some staff fearing whether their jobs will be secure. But they have also been told that should they face such a scenario, there is also a possibility they could be ‘deployed’.

At an overview and scrutiny meeting earlier this month (September 8), Councillor Jane Birch asked Anna Earnshaw, the chief executive of the new unitary council, whether there was any update on the potential number of staff that could be let go.

Ms Earnshaw responded: “It’s probably one of the most commonly asked questions of staff at the moment. At the moment there are no wholesale plans to introduce redundancies, and we’ve not accounted for that in terms of numbers or targets or any areas where we’ve identified that.

“However, the programme does expect to realise some efficiencies by coming together. Clearly we have a lot of duplicate functions and people doing the same sorts of things, and we aren’t going to need all those to do all of those things.

“That said, in other areas liked education where we’re splitting them, there will be new opportunities coming up, and we will have to add in new posts so they work in both areas and can fulfil all their functions.”

Ms Earnshaw said that a detailed assessment would now be carried out looking at the next level of staff below directors and ‘line one managers’, and that it will have to think about the new structure of the replacement council.

She added: “I can’t give you an exact answer at the moment, but it’s a key next step – it’s something that staff are worried about and it’s something we need to work through.

“Anybody who is displaced or faces potential redundancy will have an opportunity to re-deploy, just to reiterate there will be new jobs too.”